We went to war in Iraq why?

[BewitchedKisses]

I was reading this article, and I found myself a little surprised.

Documents Show Iraqi Dictator's Fears

By SCOTT SHANE

Published: July 2, 2009

WASHINGTON - In a series of interrogations before his execution, Saddam Hussein told an F.B.I. agent that on the eve of the 2003 American invasion, Iraq was trapped between United Nations orders to demonstrate that it had disarmed and a fear that appearing too weak would invite attack from its powerful neighbor and foe, Iran.

The ousted Iraqi dictator "was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses and vulnerabilities than the repercussions of the United States for his refusal to allow U.N. inspectors back into Iraq," according to a summary of questioning by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The inspectors, he feared, "would have directly identified to the Iranians where to inflict maximum damage to Iraq," he told the F.B.I.

Mr. Hussein told the F.B.I. that if United Nations sanctions against his country had been lifted, Iraq would have sought a security agreement with the United States to protect it from Iran.

The summaries of 20 formal interviews and five additional "casual conversations," as his captors called them, all between February and June 2004, were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, a private research group at George Washington University. They were posted Monday night on the archive's Web site, nsarchive.org.

The interviews contain few major revelations, but they underscore once again both Mr. Hussein's striking miscalculation of the risks he faced and the United States' mistaken estimate of the threat Iraq really posed.

Mr. Hussein, identified as "High Value Detainee No. 1" in the interview reports, was discovered by American troops in an underground hide-out in December 2003 after a vast manhunt. He was questioned first by a team of interrogators led by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Charles A. Duelfer, a veteran intelligence official who led the hunt for unconventional weapons in Iraq in 2004.

Later, starting in February 2004, F.B.I. agents took their turn with the former Iraqi leader, exploiting his desire to shape his historical image in order to keep him talking, Mr. Duelfer said in an interview.

"Saddam had limited incentives to talk," Mr. Duelfer said, since he knew he faced trial and likely execution.

F.B.I. interrogators led by George L. Piro, a Lebanese-born agent who is fluent in Arabic, implicitly flattered their prisoner by listening patiently to his recollections and his interpretation of historical events.

Mr. Piro showed the former dictator a documentary about Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf war to provoke his comments; Mr. Hussein warmed to the F.B.I. agent to the point that he would read poetry he was writing in his cell.

Obsessed with Iran, with which Iraq had fought a devastating eight-year war in the 1980s, Mr. Hussein did not take seriously the demands from President George W. Bush that he prove he had no unconventional weapons.

"We did not appreciate how large the threat of Iran loomed in his thinking," Mr. Duelfer said, calling the United States' understanding of Iraq in 2003 "cartoonish."

In the interviews, Mr. Hussein described Osama bin Laden as a "zealot" and denied that Iraq had any substantive ties to Al Qaeda. Both that claim, and the assertion that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, were later confirmed by American intelligence agencies.

"The interviews show the United States had many policy options short of war," said Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive.

Invited by the F.B.I. agents to give his views of the modern history of Iraq, Mr. Hussein appeared to relish the opportunity. He recounted in detail the fierce political conflicts that marked his rise to power and gave his version of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. He described himself as a revolutionary rather than a politician, claimed to have often considered leaving office to become a farmer, and reported watching "numerous American films."

When the F.B.I. agents gingerly posed questions about his slaughter of Iraqi opponents, Mr. Hussein at times denied the atrocities and at others described them as the only adequate answer to "treason."

When Mr. Piro asked why, in view of his self-described preference for living simply, he had so many extravagant palaces, "Hussein stated that the palaces belonged to the nation and not to one person." For security, he said, he moved constantly among his many residences and had spoken on the phone only twice since 1990. He denied reports that he deployed look-alike doubles as a safety measure.

A secular leader who modeled himself after Stalin but sometimes exploited the popular appeal of Islam, Mr. Hussein ended one F.B.I. interview in order to pray. "The sins of a government are not a few," he remarked, according to the summary.

[lovemymarine306]

i think its too late for the why's...we just need to end it and apologize. 

[LEJOLIE]

 because of that fkin BUSH thats why.

[CraZedSAHMof3]

Apologize??  for what??  What should we have done about 9/11??  Nothing?? 

I am going to post this and then go and ask my husband what he thinks we should have done and should we apologize.  He's a US SOLDIER and been deployed!! 

To be continued!!!!!!

[celticreverie]

your husband being a soldier doesn't make his opinion on the war more valuable. My dh is army and doesn't agree with the war in Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 either.. someone doesn't watch the news.

[trz031407]

I have no clue really. I think it's because Bush wanted a war, and knew he could pick on the little people. The American people just kept getting "Terror" and "Weapons of Mass Destruction" all over the tv screens, what the hell would we know the difference? We thought we were defending ourselves, haha yeah OooK.

 Can't wait to see what other people say.
I mean, to look at the other point of view - Sadaam could have just been playing the good guy as a show in hopes to not die. But, 'eh..

[celticreverie]

the US didn't execute him. he was hung in Iraq.Hewas sentenced to death in Iraq.. the people wanted him gone, or at least a lot did. He wasn't a good guy. Not excusing the war but still.

[YvonnesMommy]

We need to focus on Iran now... it's a scary place out there.  I don't believe in apologies for what was done, look at the good we have done for their country and their people.  We've set them up to govern themselves, and now it's up to them to continue or our teachings.

It doensn't pay to think about all the money that was wasted on paying these guys but just to look forward.

[trz031407]

Quoting CraZedSAHMof3:

Apologize??  for what??  What should we have done about 9/11??  Nothing?? 

I am going to post this and then go and ask my husband what he thinks we should have done and should we apologize.  He's a US SOLDIER and been deployed!! 

To be continued!!!!!!

What should we have done about 9/11? - Not allowed Osama Bin Laden's family to LEAVE the country. We should have held them hostage for information. That would have been a good choice I think.

[perfectkitten]

Iraq was a ploy to finish what daddy started. What we need to be doing is putting the Bush Administration in the spotlight for breaking the law and hiding behind the Patriot Act. We had no business in Iraq. Osama bin Laden is in hiding and do you really think anyone is going to give that idiot to The United States? Actually I remember reading an article some time ago and we were actually offered bin laden, but we refused because he wouldn't face a military tribunal. Now we have Iran, N.Korea, and Afghanistan to worry about. I think our military resources are going to eventually dry up unless the draft gets reinstated. Than all he** will break loose in our own country.

[Arelf27]

Well unfortunately doesn't seem like anyone cares to remember anymore but originally Bush admin. told people there were "nucear" (aka nuclear) weapons in Iraq.. The deal was Sadam Hussein was supposed to give up the nukies or we go in.. Sadam Hussein (no matter how bad of a person he was and a terrible dictator and/or whatever) told the truth that there was no nukies in his country and therefore nothing he could surrender..

Well hubby and I knew right from the beginning that was the truth and we were convinced 99.9% there were no nukkies in Iraq. But I guess we are supposed to be some kind of geniouses because we were in the minority..lol Then again - with the kind of surveillense (sattelites, special ops, etc.) that our govt. has I know they had to have known there were no nukies.. So that was the 1st lie..

Then our whole nation developed amnesia and totally agreed and supported each and every statement that came out of Bush admin. and the "new reason of the week" that the admin. cared to cook up that week..